"THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS" is one of the great story-books of the world. It will give specific literary device information that I think will behelpful to place these stories in their proper context as well as demonstratehow influential they became through succeeding literary generations (in story,play, music, and film). I would encourage you to read the Wikipedia article on thesetales. If you don't want to read all of this post - the schedule and link to the textare at the end.
Some of the more familiar taleswill come towards the middle to end of this series of readings (Aladin, Sinbad,Ali Baba, etc.) You do not haveto read them all, unless you wish to do so. Our next few weeks will be devoted toreading some of the 1001 Arabian Night stories (circa 800 AD). I am late postingour next readings, so please forgive me. I hope you all had a chance to finish up Beowulf last week. This reflects Arabian Nights, where all of the stories are told within the larger story.Dear Readers - Good Tuesday Morning to you all! Some of the cards included the storyteller himself, djinn cards (genies), and a card that required the players to play another game within the game already being played. The game’s fourth card set, released in 1993, was labeled Arabian Nights. While inspiring literature and film with it’s various fables, Arabian Nights has also inspired games, such as the card game “Magic: The Gathering”. He twisted the story to reference pop culture and modern icons while set in New York City, though openly credits Arabian Nights. The Arabian Nights has more recently inspired plays, such as the show “1001” written in 2005 by Jason Grote. He includes Scheherazade as a character who show up inside the actual story of “Somebody” as opposed to “Sinbad” Another author who wrote his version of Sinbad’s final voyage, or at least references where he believe it should have gone, is John Barth. He wrote the story for what he deemed “The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade”, in which he created one last tale: Sinbad’s final (8th) voyage. In a more macabre sense, the tales were actually continued by a few authors, including one Mr.
Another icon that’s stemmed from these tales is Sinbad, which has also snatched it’s own animated movie within the past decade called “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas”. Aladdin was turned into a Disney movie in 1992 and has become a classic among Disney’s films. A few of the stories have become bigger icons since elaborated on in America.
Since the tales were first translated into English, they have has quote an extensive impact on Western writing, especially in film. Between the earliest and most recent versions, the tales themselves have been translated into French, Persian, Arabic and finally into English. The oldest of the manuscripts recovered were dated back to the 9th century and were located in Syria, discovered in 1948. The tales themselves have undergone many versions and translations to become what we know them as today. The stories are seeded within Persian, Arabic, Indian and Egyptian folklore, with hints of Ancient Greece being referenced. These days, almost everyone knows at least a couple of tales from these collected works. The Arabian nights (also known as 1001 Nights) is probably the most well-known collection of tales in history. 1001 Nights - One Thousand and One Nights - The Arabian Nights